Health-Care, Tech Sectors Lead Another Busy Week for IPOs

The U.S. initial public offering market is in the midst of its busiest two-week period in years, the latest milestone in this year’s resurgence of corporate stock sales.

Fourteen U.S.-listed IPOs are slated to price between now and Friday, on top of nine debuts last week. The combined 23 deals would mark the most in any two-week period since November 2007, the latest sign the IPO market is back to pre-financial crisis form.

Kicking things off Tuesday, eye-treatment developer Ophthotech Corp. is slated to offer up to an estimated $152 million in equity. The company had initially seen selling $109 million in stock but this week raised projections for the price and number of shares in its debut. Among other deals scheduled for after the close, cancer analysis company Foundation Medicine Inc. is slated to sell up to an estimated $80 million in stock.

Premier Inc., a group-purchasing company for hospitals and other health-care providers, is slated to price an offering of up to an estimated $732 million in stock Thursday, the biggest deal of the week and the largest in the U.S. since mid-August.

The spate of health-care deals marks a continued strong showing for the sector, which has accounted for 22% of U.S. IPO volume year-to-date, the most of any industry group, according to preliminary figures from Dealogic. Health-care stocks have led the S&P 500’s advance to record levels in 2013, gaining 28% since the start of the year.

Tech-sector offerings are also represented on the calendar. Computer storage company Violin Memory Inc. and RingCentral Inc., a provider of phone systems for businesses are both slated to see their debuts price on Thursday.

“There’s a lot of money that’s looking for growth assets,” said Frank Maturo, vice chairman of equity capital market at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “These tech and health-care deals are really playing into that theme.”

Mr. Maturo emphasized that broadly speaking, inflows of cash into U.S. stocks-focused mutual funds have buoyed the IPO market this month. According to Lipper, such investment products took in a net $6.3 billion in new cash the two weeks ended Wednesday. Conventional mutual funds have seen inflows for 37 straight weeks.

Meanwhile, stocks have generally risen in September with few speed bumps along the way, and many deals have rewarded investors.